8% of Americans Agree Contraception Is Wrong

March 1, 2012

Right around the same time that the Reformed Pastor and I were wondering whether there were any polling data about contraceptives as such (that is, what share of the population thinks contraception itself is immoral, not just the HHS mandate or any other current particular), Pew was releasing a report about exactly that, as Pew staff helpfully pointed out to me.

Pew estimates that 8% of the general population believe that it’s wrong to use contraceptives:

8% of Americans

15% of Catholics

27% of Catholics who go to church on Sunday

If you add in the categories of people who said that it depends and people who said they didn’t know, the numbers are significantly bigger:

16% of Americans

23% of Catholics

37% of churchgoing Catholics

Keep in mind all the usual caveats, take polls with a grain of salt, etc. Assuming that these numbers are more or less accurate, those who oppose contraception are certainly not a majority, but they’re a lot more than nothing or negligible, despite liberals’ implications to the contrary.